ArmInfo. The new tax regulations proposed as part of the changes in the Law on State Duty, suggesting a 60-fold increase in state duty for pawnshops and currency exchange offices are aimed at removing small players from the market. The founder of one of the pawnshops in Yerevan Igit Igityan said this on March 14 in an interview with journalists. Representatives of the sphere today continued the protest in front of the government building.
For a week now, pawnshops and currency exchange offices are sounding the alarm: they demand from the government to impose a "veto" on the document and not let it pass in parliament in its current form. According to the bill proposed by the government, instead of the current state duty for pawnshops at 100 thousand drams (about $ 205) a bar will be set at 6 million drams (about $ 12.3 thousand), and for exchange points - 3 million drams (about $ 6.1 thousand) instead of the current 50 thousand (about $ 102). As noted, the adoption of the bill threatens to close more than half of the 140 pawnshops and 200 exchange offices operating throughout the country. As a result, more than 1,300 people will lose jobs, and the state treasury's tax losses will reach 900 million drams (about $ 1.8 million). In addition, as they say, financial revenues of state structures (RA Police, Financial Ombudsman) and non-governmental organizations (trading banks, telecom operators, insurance companies, etc.) providing services to pawnshops and "exchange offices" will be reduced. They also declare unequal and unfair treatment of financial institutions - the state duty for merchant banks will increase from 3 million drams to 7 million (increase 2.3-fold), for credit institutions the state duty will be 3 million drams from the previous 500 thousand drams (6-fold increase ), and for pawnshops and currency exchange offices, a 60-fold increase in tax burden is expected.
According to Igityan, he invested 20 million drams in his business, the monthly revenue is 800 thousand drams. "This is the only source of income for my family and the families of my two employees , payments are made on mandatory payments, and as a result my net income is 200 thousand drams. If the proposed changes take effect, I will have to work with a monthly minus of 300 thousand drams", he said. According to Igityan, it is possible that the authors of the bill have a subjective negative attitude towards this type of business. "There is no other explanation to such an initiative," he stressed.
Chairman of the Union of Pawnshops of Armenia, Hrant Nalbandyan, in turn, noted that within a week none of the representatives of the Central Bank or the Ministry of Finance expressed a desire to listen to them or to take part in discussions in the government. "We continue to demand from the authors of the initiative to submit a reasonable calculation of the increase in the state duty. If they have decided to increase the state duty, they should demonstrate an equal attitude towards us and the commercial banks, in accordance with the income received," he said. In particular, as the pawnshop employee David Hovhannisyan explained, the merchant banks carry out about 20 functions, their annual income averages 6.5 billion drams, and the income of medium-sized pawnshops - 13 million drams. Thus, as he pointed out, there is an unequal attitude towards the players of the financial market. As a result, according to him, it would be reasonable not to change the current regulations, which were based on an economically sound calculation.
The protest rally organizers intend to bring their proposals to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. They are sure that if the prime minister is informed about all the nuances, the initiative will not be implemented.